“It was just sad and depressing and tiring, and the heart ached,” he continued. “And I was lost.”

And Williams credits his wife Ayda Field and their kids—Theodora, 13, Charlton, 11, Colette, 7, and Beau, 5—for helping him turn his life around.

“It just moved too fast for me to understand what it was,” he said, calling his family his “nearest and dearest.”

“There is a purpose now,” Williams added. “I do a job, and daddy goes to work, and it all makes sense now.”

To see Williams at work at the World Cup—as well as and more celebrity soccer fans—keep reading.